• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.217-225
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• 2008

A new micro reformer system consisted of a micro reformer, a microcombustor and a micro evaporator was studied experimentally and computationally. In order to satisfy the primary requirements for designing the microcombustor integrated with a micro evaporator, i.e. stable burning in a small confinement and maximum heat transfer through a wall, the present microcombustor is simply cylindrical to be easily fabricated but two-staged (expanding downstream) to feasibly control ignition and stable burning. Results show that the aspect ratio and wall thickness of the microcombustor substantially affect ignition and thermal characteristics. For the optimized design conditions, a premixed microflame was easily ignited in the expanded second stage combustor, moved into the smaller first stage combustor, and finally stabilized therein. A micro reformer system integrated with a modified microcombustor based on the optimized design condition was fabricated. For a typical operating condition, the designed micro reformer system produced 22.3 sccm hydrogen (3.61 W in LHV) in an overall efficiency of 12%.